Valentine's day Fever
by Matrixaliesie
Summary: Zell has big plans, but they all get ruined when he wakes up feeling awful.


The morning sun shone brightly into Zell's room as his alarm clock screamed for him to crawl out of bed.

He blinked slowly slipping back into consciousness and reached out to shut off his alarm then rubbed his eyes to try and wake himself up faster.

He had an unpleasant tickle in the back of his throat, his nose, completely stuffed. When he finally sat up, and his body felt like he'd lost a fight with a t-rexaur. This was not going to be a good day for him, he had his written exam for his instructor's certification today, added on top of that it was valentine's day. It wasn't a holiday he typically celebrated, but he had a date for it this year. He quietly hoped that he had just been snoring, causing him to feel so crappy.

He forced his way out of bed, put his SeeD uniform on and head slowly to the cafeteria for breakfast. As he walked the stiffness of his back subsided but the ache remained, by the time he'd gotten to the cafeteria the tickle in his throat turned into fiery death every time he swallowed, and his sinuses were draining into it adding fuel to the fire.

"ZELL, OVER HERE!" He heard Selphie's shrill voice yell, usually she didn't bother him but today, her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. He turned in the direction her voice shrieked from and saw her arms flailing in the air over her head with Irvine and Quistis sitting at the table as well. He offered a quick wave acknowledging that he knew where they were, then got in the food line. Zell had no appetite but was dying for something to put out the fire burning in his throat. He finally made it to the front of the line and grabbed a large bottle of water out of the display cooler, paid for it then went to join his friends in the cafeteria.

"Man, you look awful," Irvine said with a chuckle.

 _Thanks, dick._ Zell thought.

"I feel awful..." he said his voice full of gravel, sitting down taking a large gulp of his water, it made it easier to swallow, but the fire still burned fiercely and caused his stomach to churn a little causing him to wince at the unpleasantness of it.

"Are you going to be able to get through your instructor's exam?" Quistis asked with concern. Zell had no idea if he could get through it, he just wanted to crawl back in bed and start the day over already, and he hadn't even been up more than 20 minutes. He wanted the instructor's position so badly, and the chance didn't come around that often since there wasn't much turnover for instructors since the war ended eight years ago, and cutbacks were made and the school started to focus a little more on general education. Now only students who enrolled with the intent of becoming a member of SeeD were placed in combat and tactics courses.

"I don't have much choice Quis, I want this position, and this is the only day for testing." He said firmly his voice getting raspy. Quistis offered him a concerned look.

"Well, at least it's only a written test." She conceded giving him a sympathetic on the shoulder. Zell was grateful that the test was only written, but it was a three-hour test, and he wasn't sure how long he would be able to sit staring at the computer screen.

"Why don't you go see Dr. Kadowaki!" Selphie said with an unusual amount of excitement, though it could have just been that Zell felt so awful that her usual level of excitement seemed higher than average, likely because it was valentine's day, and Selphie had somehow gotten approval for a party in the ballroom. He had been excited for it too, but only because he always liked seeing Aliesie all dressed up.

"That's a good idea." Quistis agreed. "If you go now you'll be able to see her and make it in time for your exam." She continued.

Zell looked down at his watch and nodded in agreement; he quietly stood grabbing his bottle of water and leaving without another word.

"Is it just me, or did he kinda give off a Squall vibe?" Irvine asked breaking his silence. Selphie and Quistis both quickly turned to stare at Irvine in disbelief.

"I guess now that you mention it he kinda did," Selphie said in agreement. "Maybe Squall has been sick all this time, and that's the real reason he acts like that!" Selphie continued, Irvine laughed, and Quistis rolled her eyes and finished eating her breakfast.

Zell slowly made it to the infirmary feeling more and more achy the closer he got to the automatic door to Dr. Kadowaki's office. When he entered, he was glad to see it empty of students, and Dr. Kadowaki in her usual spot behind her desk wearing her usual lab coat and her graying hair pulled back into her usual bun.

"Zell!" She chirped as she looked up from her paperwork when she heard the door open. "I haven't seen you in here in a while, what can I do for you?" She continued as she got to her feet.

"I feel awful." He said his voice still raspy. She frowned and walked out from behind her desk and over to him and felt his forehead.

"You feel a little warm, alright come into the exam room, take off your jacket and hop on the table." She leads him into a room towards the back of the office flipping on a light as she opened the door. The room was a little chilly as he took his warm uniform jacket off and hung it on a nearby rack and climbed slowly onto the cushioned exam table that had a paper rolled over the top of it.

She walked over to a drawer and pulled out a thermometer that looked more like a probe, she stuck the end of it into a box and pulled it back out.

"Open your mouth." she said, and held the probe under his tongue, waited till the little machine it was tethered to beeped then pulled it back out.

"Well, Zell you have a fever of 100.1F°."

"Great." Zell groaned.

The doctor continued, her examination checking his heart, lungs and blood pressure. She looked in his throat and ears and checked his lymph nodes; she told him they were slightly swollen so they were fighting off his ailment.

"Well, you're sick." She said.

 _Thank you, for telling me what I already know._ He thought.

"Can you make it stop?" he asked pitifully.

"I'm sorry Zell, I can't cure a cold. I can give you something to help with the symptoms for a while," She walked over to a cupboard over her sink and retrieved a white pill bottle. "These should help a little," She said handing the bottle to Zell.

"What is it?" he asked inspecting the pill bottle.

"Just some cold medicine, it should help relieve aches and lower your fever for a few hours, but you should still get plenty of rest and fluids; NO MISSIONS!" She explained.

Not that he would be going on any missions, he hoped that it would be a long time before he had to go on another mission after taking his test. He was grateful to have something to alleviate his suffering during that period, though. But he still had one more problem afterwards; he had a date with Aliesie. He didn't want to cancel on her, but he also didn't want to be a killjoy either. Plus, he didn't want to risk her getting sick as well.

He thanked the doctor and hopped down off the table and exited while putting his jacket back on.

After popping a couple of the tablets in his mouth, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and proceeded to text Aliesie on his way to the examination room. He waited for her to text him back as long as he could outside the classroom, but he got no reply before having to shut off his phone, sign in and start the exam.

"Hey, Zell!" he heard a familiar voice chimed as he entered the room.

"Rin? What are you doing here?" he croaked.

"Oh! You sound awful are you okay?" she asked.

"It's just a cold, what are you doing here?" he asked again as he signed his name on a clipboard.

"Well, Squall is proctoring the exam, I'm just here to hang out with him!" she explained as she hopped up to sit on the desk.

"You know you'll have to be quiet while everyone is testing." Squall said as he entered the room.

"I know! I've got plenty to occupy my time!" she said as she lifted a large bag from the floor onto the desk beside her.

"Take a seat, Zell." Squall ordered while taking papers out of the bag he brought in with him.

Zell quickly moved to take one of the empty seats in the room; he was surprised at how few people there were taking the test, and he started to feel somewhat confident about his odd of being certified.

Squall had Rinoa distribute the tests to everyone as he shut the door.

* * *

The test was a relatively straightforward one, at least that's what Zell had thought. Once it was over, he hadn't remembered what went on during the test. The medication apparently had a side effect, all he knew was that he woke up, in his bed with nothing but a t-shirt and boxers on. His SeeD uniform was hanging neatly in the corner of his room; his phone was plugged into the charger, and an empty bottle of orange juice was sitting on his nightstand. He had no recollection of ever returning to his room, or how any of that happened, he didn't even remember finishing his test, and he started to get anxious about how he did on it.

Zell didn't know how it was possible, but he felt even worse than he had before, his body was stiff his eyes were on fire breathing through his mouth hurt, and he couldn't even attempt to breathe through his nose; His head was pounding so hard he could hear it.

No, it was his actual door that was making that sound. He rose slowly from his bed, making all kinds of grunting and groaning sounds as he did and wrapped his blanket around his entire body.

He slowly pulled the door open and leaned against it, squinting in the bright light of the hallway.

"Wow, you are sick aren't you?" She asked, "At least I know you weren't just making things up to get out of going out for Valentine's day!" she laughed.

"I'm sorry, for cancelling on you…" he croaked weakly.

"It's no big deal, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't want to go out anyway, so I brought you some things to help you feel better!" she said holding up a bag that looked heavy.

"Like what?" he asked trying to peek into it.

She gestured for him to let her inside, and he took half a step to the side for her to get past him. As she entered, he took notice that she was all dressed up for their date. She wore a knee-length red dress on that had off the shoulder short sleeves her long black hair was pulled over her one shoulder and done in a loose, messy braid and to finish off her ensemble she wore white wedge Sandals that were tied around her ankles with satin ribbons.

"I brought you some chicken noodle soup, some hot tea, and I remembered that you like bad Kung-Fu movies, so I rented… 'Fists of Fury five- Fear the Fist.'" She listed everything off as she removed them from the bag. Everything she listed sounded great, and he was glad someone cared enough to check on him while he was sick since his friends seemed to be too preoccupied with the valentine's day party that Selphie threw together.

"Chicken noodle soup sound great!" He chirped.

"Well you know what they say, 'feed a cold, starve a fever.'" She misquoted it, but he didn't correct her, she brought him soup and tea, that's all he wanted.

" That movie is a classic!" he said, changing the subject as he sat back on his bed.

"I'm sure it is." She laughed as she popped the DVD into his player and turned the TV on.

She made her way over to his bed and sat where his pillow was and moving it onto her lap. Zell must have looked like he was about to fall over because he heard Aliesie say he could lay his head on her lap if he wanted, and he wasn't about to refuse.

"Thank you." He mumbled as he got comfortable.

"You're welcome." She replied stroking his hair.

It felt like he was in heaven at that moment and it wasn't long before he felt like he was going to fall back asleep.

"I love you Aliesie, happy Valentine's day…" he said half asleep.

"I love you too…" she replied quietly.

His day had turned out better than he had expected when he woke up this morning, he had his girlfriend, hot soup and one of his favorite movies of all time playing.

 _I could get used to this…_ he thought as he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
